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Bosnias reconciliation

November 6 2005, 12:00am, The Sunday Times

I disagree, though, with the gloomy picture he paints of Bosnia more generally. Perhaps, as he suggests, I have a vested interest in perceiving progress, after three years here. But given the scale of the suffering this country endured in the 1990s (with up to 250,000 of its population killed), it is remarkable how far Bosnia has come since then: indeed the Archbishop of Canterbury has described it as a country of little miracles.

Bit by bit, the damage of war is being rolled back. The roads, bridges and houses are largely repaired. A million refugees have returned home. The three former armies are being melded into a single, Nato-compatible military force — down from 400,000 to 12,000 — and under a single defence minister (a Serb).…